Fr. Lombardi: Staying faithful to the Jesuit Mission in our schools
(Vatican Radio) “This mission of the Son of God continues in the life of the Church
and of the Society of Jesus; that mission gives meaning to our own specific mission
as educators in the schools founded and run by the Society of Jesus.”
Speaking
in Boston on Tuesday - the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyolya - at the International
Colloquium on Jesuit Secondary Education (ICJSE), Father Federico Lombardi, S.J.,
the Director General of Vatican Radio, discussed the role of the Society of Jesus
in terms of the mission of the Church, and of their own unique mission. The event,
taking place from 29 July to 2 August, brings together, for the first time in the
history of the Society of Jesus, all those responsible for high schools throughout
the world. The Colloquium aims to address common challenges, as well as the mission
and identity of the Jesuits, particularly in the field of education.
In his
keynote address, Father Lombardi described the characteristics of the Jesuit mission:
“Faithful to its origins, the mission of the Society of Jesus has always been defined
as a ‘service of faith’. However, over time, this service of faith has become enriched
with new characteristics, and has been seen from perspectives which have enabled it
to interact with new problems.”
Father Lombardi noted that the mission of the
Society is part of the mission of the Church, and that in carrying out their mission,
Jesuits look, in a special way to the guidance of the Pope. He identified some of
the main themes of Pope Benedict in speaking about the mission of the Church, including
the New Evangelisation, which aims to bring the faith to a new generation that has
not heard the message of the Gospel. Father Lombardi also spoke about the relationship
of faith and reason: “The dialogue between faith and the natural and human sciences,
between faith and art, between faith and culture in all its expressions, is one of
the most pressing imperatives of our time.”
Concluding his remarks, Father
Lombardi emphasised that the mission of the Society is not the exclusive property
of the Jesuits, but calls for collaboration with others who are called to share in,
and live, that mission.
Below, please find the full text of Father Federico
Lombardi’s keynote address to the International Colloquium on Jesuit Secondary Education:
Staying
Faithful to the Jesuit Mission in Our Schools
(Fr Federico
Lombardi S.I., Director General of Vatican Radio)
Prologue:
Dialogue with the astronauts
One of the most beautiful and inspirational
moments I have experienced over my recent years of service alongside the Holy Father
was his conversation with the astronauts.
In May last year the European Space
Agency asked if it would be possible to establish a live satellite connection between
the Pope and astronauts aboard the International Space Station in orbit around the
Earth.
Something similar had been done various times in the past, when astronauts
from a particular nation had had the opportunity to speak to their prime minister
or president, but this time the aim was more ambitious.
It was a moment in
which the Space Station was housing two full crews who were in the process of relieving
one another. There were two Italians and therefore the Italian Space Agency was involved
and had the idea of suggesting a dialogue with the Pope. When the other astronauts
learnt about it they were immediately very interested and all twelve wanted to participate:
Americans, Germans ... a Russian woman.
I will spare you the details of how
the link was arranged, the fact that it was delayed three times due to technical reasons,
and then that it had to take place at the precise moment the Space Station was passing
over Europe, etc.; but in the end it all went very well. The astronauts arranged themselves
in an ordered group, holding on to one another so as not to float away here and there;
the woman's hair was loose and hanging in the air due to the lack of gravity, and
the Pope's gaze as he watched them on the screen and spoke to them was full of curiosity.
In
the fifteen minutes he had available, rather than delivering a long address, the Pope
posed some very significant questions, and the dialogue between him and them became
very interesting.
He asked about how they saw the Earth from so high up and
what they thought of the fact that so many bloody conflicts exist; about the possibility
of science being of service to peace; about the future of our planet, so beautiful
yet so fragile; about the protection of the environment and the survival of future
generations; about the importance of international collaboration for the good of humankind;
about scientific research and the beauty of exploring the universe; about raising
our eyes to the immensity of space and admiring its beauty in a way that inevitably
turns into prayer, and (something fundamental for us as educators) about what they
should say to the young when they returned to Earth. Here are some of the astronauts'
words:
"We can look down and see our beautiful Planet Earth that God has made,
and it is the most beautiful planet in the whole Solar System. However, if we look
up, we can see the rest of the universe, and the rest of the Universe is out there
for us to go explore. And the International Space Station is just one symbol, one
example of what human beings can do when we work together constructively. So one of
our most important messages is to let the children of the planet know, the young people
of the planet know that there is a whole universe for us to go explore. And when we
do it together, there is nothing that we cannot accomplish" "When we have a moment
to look down, beauty is capturing my heart. And I do pray: I do pray for me, for our
families, for our future…"
Before the flight the Pope had given one of the
astronauts, as a symbolic gift to carry into space, a medal with a reproduction of
the fresco depicting the creation of man on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel: the
finger of God the Creator giving life to man, His most magnificent creation. ... During
their conversation, the astronauts passed the medal from one to another, making it
swing gently in the air before the Pope's eyes.
Very few times in my life have
I experienced with such intensity the words of St. Ignatius when, at the beginning
of our contemplation of the Incarnation during the Spiritual Exercises, he invites
us to see how God looked at the Earth and at what men do there and how things proceed
there; then how He decided to send His Son to save humankind. How many terrible
things happen among men on the Earth! How fragile the Earth is in man's hands! Yet
also, how many wonderful things can happen on the Earth! How many extraordinary things
humanity can do if well guided! How high the spirit of man can soar!
The
mission of the Society of Jesus
The Son of God's mission to mankind, as
decided by the Trinity while contemplating our Earth, came about so that men might
find the right path on their journey in the world, that they might understand the
reason for which they were created, the significance of the fact that they were called
into life, their responsibility for all created things. St. Ignatius speaks of leading
us "to the goal for the sake of which we were created" or - with the words of our
faith - "to be saved".
This mission of the Son of God continues in the life
of the Church and of the Society of Jesus; that mission gives meaning to our own specific
mission as educators in the schools founded and run by the Society of Jesus.
In
October we and the whole Church will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the opening
of Vatican Council II, which we must continue to consider as a vital "compass" for
life in our times, as the formulation of the mission of the Church in the modern world.
In
the light of the guidance of the Council, over succeeding decades the Society of Jesus
has celebrated five General Congregations (which, as you know, are the gatherings
of representatives from the Society of Jesus throughout the world), on average one
every ten years, in order to continue to reflect upon and reformulate its specific
mission in the light of changing times and different cultural contexts.
Faithful
to its origins, the mission of the Society of Jesus has always been defined as a "service
of faith". However, over time this service of faith has become enriched with new characteristics,
and has been seen from perspectives which have enabled it to interact with new problems.
Thus
the service of faith has increasingly had to interact with the secularisation of the
modern world, and has been seen as being indissolubly linked to the promotion of the
justice of the Kingdom announced by Christ. This has certainly been influenced by
the intense reflections of the Church on the theme of justice in which, among others,
Jesuits and Latin American theologians have been particularly active. The pairing
of faith-justice can be achieved in the modern world through inculturation and dialogue
with people from different cultures and religious traditions. In this context, inter-religious
dialogue has been heavily influenced by the experience of Jesuits in Asia; Jesuits
have been reflecting upon inculturation since the time of Father Arrupe, and Africa
too has made its own specific contribution.
The Society of Jesus' mission
is not, then, to dedicate itself to one specific activity, as is the case with other
religious congregations which were founded to teach, to cure the sick or for other
ends. It has a broad and comprehensive mission which today includes, as fundamental
aspects of the service of faith, commitment to justice, and dialogue with the cultures,
traditions and religious experience of the people among who we live. These factors
are always present together, although in different "doses" depending on the situation
in the various parts of the world.
Our most recent General Congregation, the
thirty-fifth, forcibly confronted the mission of the Society of Jesus with the rapid
transformations of today's world, in particular globalisation with all its ambiguities,
possibilities and risks; and scientific and technological progress, particularly in
the field of communications, and its consequent repercussions on culture and our view
of the human person and human society.
With this in mind and taking account
of the conflicts, divisions and tensions which affect mankind, society and even the
individual in so many different ways, the thirty-fifth General Congregation chose
to describe the mission of the Society of Jesus as a vocation aimed at reconciliation;
that is, at establishing a just and reconciled relationship with God, with others
and with the creation. Thus it laid down a broad framework which includes man's religious
and spiritual dimension, his social and relational aspects, and his responsibility
for the creation, the environment in which he lives and in which he traces his path
through history.
Three words of Pope Benedict XVI
The mission
of the Society of Jesus is, of course, part of the mission of the Church, and the
Society emphasises the fact that, in carrying out that mission, it receives guidance
from the Pope himself who, having a view over the universal panorama of the world
and the Church, is best placed to identify the priorities for the work of the Society.
The documents of the latest General Congregation also contain continuous references
to the Pope's words to Jesuits concerning the great importance of their service to
the Church in today's world. I believe, then, that it is natural - and all the more
so in view of my own personal service - for us to examine some of the main themes
identified by Pope Benedict XVI in speaking about the mission of the Church, themes
which are very important for us to consider here at this conference.
"New
evangelisation". A few days ago I was speaking to an American Jesuit father who
teaches theology at a high school here in the United States. He told me that the vast
majority of the students who follow his lessons have almost no basic knowledge of
our Christian faith. However, they are often well motivated, free from negative prejudices
and open to interesting discussions, not only about education and theory but involving
all aspects of life, such as for example moments of prayer and the examination of
conscience.
Today we cannot take it for granted that a foundation of Christian
culture and formation exists among young people. I believe that this is an increasingly
common experience in many parts of the world, and it is particularly prevalent in
areas with a longstanding Christian tradition where secularisation is making rapid
advances, where faith is largely absent from contemporary culture and communication,
and where the capacity of families to transmit the faith is becoming weaker, indeed
the family itself is often in crisis or no longer exists. In other parts of the world
we have to take account of the fact that many students are not Catholic or not Christian.
In any case, increasingly often our educational service is a seedbed in which
to instil the basic principles of faith and of Christian life into young people who
no longer come to us already trained in, or at least oriented towards, a Christian
education.
This is one aspect of the general situation of the Church in today's
world. It was the reason that John Paul II began to speak about "new evangelisation",
and that Benedict XVI has chosen to dedicate the forthcoming Synod of Bishops to the
same subject, due to be held in Rome in October this year with representatives from
all over the world. As part of the same process, Benedict XVI has also called the
"Year of Faith", in order to raise the Church's awareness about the current situation
and to stimulate the desire to announce Christ to a world which has such need but
does not know the Gospel: either because it no longer knows it or because it has never
known it.
With great humility we must recognise that the way in which we have
transmitted the faith for so long is no longer effective today. The language we used
to use has lost its meaning, and we are not present in the environments in which young
people live, communicate and grow. ... In his book/interview "Light of the World"
the Pope states this clearly, also giving some examples. "Modern man no longer immediately
understands that the blood of Christ on the Cross was spilt in atonement for our sins.
These concepts are great and true, yet they no longer find a place in our forma
mentis and in our image of the world. They must, so to speak, be translated and
understood afresh. We must, for example, understand that the concept of evil truly
needs to be reconceived; it cannot simply be set aside and forgotten. It must be reconceived
and transformed from within".
Serving the faith and committing ourselves to
the "new evangelisation" is, then, a primary requirement for the mission of the Society
of Jesus and the Church, one we cannot and must not avoid.
"Educational
emergency". In a series of talks about the pastoral care of the Church in Italy
and in the diocese of Rome, the Pope has often spoken of an "educational emergency,
confirmed by the failures which too often crown our efforts to form well-rounded individuals,
capable of collaborating with others and of giving meaning to their lives". Often
a sense of distrust and frustration spreads among parents and educators when they
see the difficulties they have to face to achieve good results in the formation of
young people.
Sometimes the responsibility is attributed to the fragility of
the new generations, sometimes to the "generation gap" which make the transmission
of values problematic. Benedict XVI notes that, "in reality, it is not only the individual
responsibilities of adults and young people that are involved, but also a more widespread
mindset: a mentality and a form of culture that lead people to doubt the value of
the human person, the meaning of truth and good and, in the final analysis, the goodness
of life itself. In such a situation it becomes difficult to transmit any worthwhile
and certain values from one generation to another: rules of behaviour and credible
goals around which people can build their lives". This is the problem of "relativism"
in our culture. Faced with this situation, in which often "the foundations are shaken
and essential certainties are lacking" (a situation I imagine you all understand,
given the global influence of secularised Western culture), the vital importance of
authentic education becomes manifest, and not an education which limits "itself to
imparting notions and information while ignoring the great question of truth, above
all of that truth which can be a guide to life".
Furthermore, education must
help people to find a balance between freedom and discipline, forming characters day
after day and not reneging on its responsibility to identify rules of behaviour and
life, while preparing people to face the challenges that the future will certainly
bring (Letter from the Pope to the diocese and the city of Rome on the vital importance
of education, 21 January 2008).
We all feel the need for this kind of education:
parents, teachers, society, and the young people themselves who do not want to be
left to face the challenges of life alone. This is the education that the pedagogical
tradition of the Society of Jesus has always sought to impart, and it remains vitally
important today.
Pope Benedict XVI's remarks about the educational emergency
include an interesting point which, in my view, is important if we are to find a balance
between the various aspects of education. He believes that, in order to combat scepticism
and relativism, we must draw from three main sources: nature, Revelation and history.
We must learn to understand nature as God's creation, full of divine words addressed
to us. It must be seen not in mechanical terms, as a great "machine", but interpreted,
understood and admired in order to ensure that it is not exploited and ravaged. It
must be cultivated and administered for the good of humankind, as the astronauts said
in their dialogue with the Pope at the beginning of my talk. Moreover, we must learn
to understand our own cultural and religious history. God's Revelation gives us fundamental
guidance which must be discovered and applied in the new situations man always meets
on his journey; it helps us humbly to understand and appreciate the dignity and vocation
of the human person. Pope Benedict concluded one of his talks on this subject with
a fine definition summarising exactly what education is: "Education means forming
new generations so that they know how to relate to the world, strengthened by a significant
memory, by a shared inner patrimony of real knowledge which, while recognising the
transcendent goal of life, guides thoughts, emotions and judgements " (Address to
the Italian Episcopal Conference, 27 May 2010).
These remarks have already
introduced us to the third theme to emerge from the Pope's words: faith and reason.
Modern culture has been profoundly influenced by science and the demands of rationality.
Indeed, the power of human reason, developed through science and technology, has been
exalted to the point of creating the illusion that it alone can resolve all problems
and overcome all obstacles, rejecting any other source of regulation. It is vitally
necessary to help people understand that the Christian faith is not in any way averse
to reason; rather it is its friend and ally, on condition that reason does not close
in upon itself excluding and marginalising the faith.
Reason, if it becomes
entirely autonomous, is exposed to the risk of arrogance, it loses a sense of man's
limitations, of the need for ethics to guide behaviour, of the values of solidarity,
gratuitousness and love to ensure that coexistence and the journey of peoples and
of the human race retain a sense of humanity and purpose.
On all the important
occasions he has addressed the modern world (such as British society at Westminster
Hall, the German Parliament in Berlin, the political and cultural worlds of Africa
in Cotonou, etc., when he has explicitly raised the issue of the relationship between
the Church's faith and the great questions of peoples and modern societies), Benedict
XVI has always spoken of the complementarity of reason and faith, their reciprocal
need of one another in order to ensure an overall equilibrium in the journey of mankind.
Economic
and social justice also requires great commitment on the part of human reason, a reason
which must have the courage to face the increasing complexity of globalised problems,
but which must remain aware that it is limited, guided and oriented by the search
for truth. In this way reason will not become an instrument in the search for absolute
power, which is always a latent risk and has found expression, for example, in the
tragedies of totalitarianism or the craze for profit which has led to the economic
crisis currently affecting so many countries of the world.
The dialogue between
faith and the natural and human sciences, between faith and art, between faith and
culture in all its expressions, is one of the most pressing imperatives of our time.
It is the necessary continuation of Vatican Council II's message on the Church and
the modern world, and has been an essential element of the mission of the Society
of Jesus ever since its origins.
Education must present young people with a
continuous and increasingly profound search for the truth about things, about coexistence
and human history, about the relationship between each one of us and the mystery of
God. This is a fascinating adventure which can last an entire lifetime, and it is
the education we must seek to achieve in order to respond to the essential needs of
humanity.
Please allow me to express my own immense personal respect for secondary
education, the education to which you dedicate your lives. I will quote from a famous
speech delivered by Father Arrupe to your predecessors in 1980. "Distinct from primary
education and university education, secondary education gives us access to the minds
and hearts of the young, of boys and girls, at an important moment in their development:
when they are capable of a coherent and reasoned assimilation of human values illuminated
by Christianity, but when their personalities have not yet acquired traits that are
difficult to modify. It is above all in secondary education that the mentality of
young people undergoes systematic formation. Consequently, it is the time in which
they must create a harmonious blend between faith and modern culture" (Fr Arrupe,
I nostri collegi oggi e domani, Rome 1980, no. 2). This was certainly my own
experience fifty years ago when my vocation to the religious life as a Jesuit came
into being as a life choice. Therefore I continue to believe that this is fundamentally
true.
Returning to the educational tradition of the Society of Jesus
I
do not think that I have to remind you of the documents concerning the educational
activities of the Society of Jesus in secondary education; you probably know them
better than I do. Certainly, when I was Provincial in the 1980s it was with great
joy that I received the text: The Characteristics of Jesuit Education which,
I felt, clearly and effectively expressed the fascinating relationship between the
Ignatian view of the world and of man, the pedagogy of the Spiritual Exercises, and
the pedagogy we must practise in our own educational institutes in accordance with
our mission.
However, I would like to recall a number of points about our educational
activity which have been highlighted by Fathers General, in relation to the updating
and modernisation of the mission of the Society of Jesus.
Arrupe
Father
Arrupe gave great emphasis to the issue of forming people for service, a service in
keeping with the Gospel. He used the famous phrase "men and women for others" to identify
the kind of people we wish to form; this means forming them in faith, but faith works
through charity and charity translates into actions of justice and solidarity. In
this ideal view of the person it is easy to see the translation of the Ignatian ideal
"to love and serve in all things", and that of the dual aspect of the Society's mission
as it was formulated following the Council: "service of faith and promotion of justice".
All efforts towards academic success and excellence must be clearly guided, not by
egoism and the desire to impose of one's own personality upon others, but by generous
service to other people and to society.
Father Arrupe also highlighted the
need to form people "open to their own time and to the future", people capable of
continually meeting change and new challenges throughout their lives, with optimism
and courage. For this reason it is vitally important to educate people to critically
evaluate novelties and to show responsible freedom.
Finally, Father Arrupe
identified the ideal of a "balanced" person. I find this aspect of striving after
balanced integration particularly intersting. "The ideal of our colleagues", he said,
"is not to produce little academic monsters, dehumanised and introverted, nor devout
believers allergic to the world in which they live and incapable of resonating". And
he went on: "Our ideal is closer to the Greek model, in its Christian version; balanced,
serene and constant, open to everything that is human". Father Arrupe also turned
his attention to the relationship between technology and humanism, saying: "The mission
of our centres of education is to save humanism, but without renouncing the use of
technology". (Fr. Arrupe, I nostri collegi oggi e domani, 1980, no. 14). It
is my belief that the tradition of the Society of Jesus continually calls us to maintain
an equilibrium between, on the one hand, an academic formation in keeping with the
times and, on the other, an appreciation and taste for humanism, including such aspects
as history, art, philosophy and the uplifting contemplation of beauty. If we think
of a figure such as Matteo Ricci, who was such an eminent expression of Jesuit education
of his time, the greatest of the missionaries to China, a man capable of building
bridges between two very different cultures, then we may understand how vital scientific
and humanist formation are for the mission of evangelisation on the Church's most
demanding and important frontiers.
Kolvenbach
Despite these upbeat
views of Father Arrupe we cannot hide the fact that, for a considerable period of
time, many people in the Society of Jesus thought that our schools had achieved their
historical mission and that the Jesuits would do better to dedicate themselves to
other forms of apostolate. This attitude was influenced by a global tendency of criticism
against schools, a fall in the numbers of Jesuits, and the idea that schools were
incapable of educating people in justice and the transformation of society. However
Father Kolvenbach, during his long tenure as Superior General, clearly reaffirmed
the importance of this apostolate within the overall framework of the Society of Jesus'
mission. Thus at Arequipa in 1998 he said that "today it would be irresponsible to
abandon not only the field of education, but also that of schools. From the point
of view of the mission, education and schools continue to be important terrain for
evangelisation. There are few other places in which there is such close and constant
interaction, for so many hours a day and over so many years, between pupils, families,
teachers and the community. Renouncing education would mean abandoning an important
part of evangelisation and of 'new evangelisation'" (Fr Kolvenbach, Los desafíos
de la educación cristiana a las puertas del tercer milenio, Arequipa 1998).
Father
Kolvenbach dedicated specific attention to the issue of globalisation, as being the
current scenario for our educational work, also in secondary schools. He highlighted
the great possibilities it offers to human development, as well as its risks, which
require the careful application of critical discernment, especially in regions of
the world in which the neoliberal view of economic life prevails. As Father Arrupe
before him, he warned against a use of the classical criteria of quality, competence
and efficiency when not moderated and guided by the spirit of Christianity.
What
is important, in fact, is to ensure the development of the entire person and of all
people; in other words, to look to the good of everyone and not just of the privileged,
to exchange know-how and not concentrate it for the benefit of the few and the disadvantage
of the many, who remain poorer not only in material goods but also in knowledge. In
a world in which "knowledge is power", we must remember the importance of "knowing
with" and of "knowing for". "In a world in which knowledge degenerates in limitless
competition, and in which individualism and lack of solidarity create new barriers
and forms of exclusion, we must reinstate the idea of knowledge for the sake of others,
of knowledge and power as service, solidarity, and compassion in the full meaning
of the word" (ibid.). Likewise, striving after efficiency and results must not cause
us to lose sight of the reasons and the goals of science, technology, economics, and
life itself. Father Kolvenbach emphasised that "the efficiency and results sought
after by a Catholic school must remain within the framework of the theology and ethics
of ends and means, always subordinated to the glory of God, which is the good of the
human person" (ibid.). With far-sighted intuition he also spoke of an "ecology" which
had to concern itself with the air we breathe in our schools, a pure and new air distinct
from the contaminated atmosphere which so often surrounds and invades us: unbridled
individualism, ferocious competitiveness, lack of solidarity, materialism, hedonism,
insensitivity towards others and their exclusion and marginalisation, lack of ethical
principles and lack of compassion (ibid.). I find this theory of an overall human
ecology very interesting, and it also emerges today in the words of Pope Benedict,
who invites us to care not only for the natural environment in which we live, but
first and foremost for the equilibrium of people, in their relationships with others
and with God. Here once again what we are seeking is integral humanism.
In
the new digital communication world
Turning now to consider the state
of education in recent years, we note that our mission has been increasingly marked
by new communications technologies, and by the culture and mentality they have created
and diffused. This is the culture in which our young people are born, grow up and
live, and in which we educators accompany them on their journey. Our intention is
not in any way to reject that culture, but to seek how to live within it, exploiting
its positive potential and avoiding its risks. I do not, of course, have to explain
this to you, who are well aware of the problems you encounter face to face every day
in your young people.
I will limit myself, then, to two points which I have
discussed on various occasions with a good Jesuit Father, a "guru" of the new media,
a former school teacher, like you, and currently editor-in-chief of a Jesuit cultural
magazine, La Civiltà Cattolica, Antonio Spadaro (cfr A.Spadaro, La spiritualità
dei nuovi ‘barbari’, Civ.Catt., 21.7.2012).
The first point is educating
people in deep and significant human relationships. The endless multiplication of
contacts on the Internet can, in fact, lead to the illusion of cultivating many friendships.
But in most cases all it involves are superficial relationships which never culminate
in a personal exchange of life experiences, the only thing that can enrich people
and help them grow. Benedict XVI raised the question in his most recent homily for
Pentecost. "It is true", he said, "that we have increased our capacity to communicate,
to exchange information and to transmit news, but can we say that our capacity to
understand one other has increased or rather, paradoxically, that we understand one
another less?" Likewise, the Pope's marvellous Message for the 2009 World Day of Social
Communications focused on the theme of "relationships between people" in the world
of digital communication. We must seek to move from mere "connection" or superficial
communication, to the experience of "communion", authentic friendship, concrete solidarity.
Young people must be made aware that the Internet, if well used, opens important possibilities
for dialogue between people from different countries, cultures, religions and backgrounds,
a space in which to nurture understanding and tolerance. Thus, by using the potential
of the Internet, the aspect of dialogue which we mentioned earlier as being an essential
part of the mission of the Society of Jesus today, can perhaps become a dimension
of our educational activity. And perhaps the construction of a "real network" of relationships
among your schools may be an opportunity to transfer young people from the level of
digital or virtual communication to that of more profound and complete human encounter
and interaction.
One further aspect which touches us profoundly as educators
is that of forming people for interior life in a world in which continuous
(not to say obsessive) surfing on the Internet seems to make moments of reflection,
contemplation and inner silence ever more rare, and thus makes it increasingly difficult
to raise the most profound questions about the meaning of life. In this context it
might be helpful to reflect more carefully on the "interactive" aspect of modern online
communications. Indeed, it is not true that people are obliged simply to move continually
from one point to another of the Internet while remaining on the surface, and that
they do not have the possibility of becoming more profoundly involved.
I would
like to raise two issues for our reflections on this theme. Firstly, I know a community
of consecrated persons who are trying to make online resources available for young
people to help them discern and reflect on questions about the meaning of their lives,
on the basis of the concrete experiences and questions they have to face every day,
in a highly informal and not "catechistic confessional" manner. This presupposes that
people in search of themselves and of God meet on the Internet, and that a profound
dialogue can be established with them. Secondly, the spirituality St. Ignatius teaches
us in the Spiritual Exercises is highly "interactive", because it obliges us to involve
ourselves personally in the episodes of the Gospel we examine, to interact and speak
with the evangelical characters and to react with spiritual attitudes, with decisions
and intentions. Being educated in this way to spiritual interactivity, and not to
passive contemplation, can give rise to a form of spiritual life capable of accompanying
and characterising the "life on the web" of young people today. This overcomes the
negative view according to which the Internet surfer must by definition be someone
who remains on the surface and is incapable of entering into the depth of things.
I
hope that these considerations do not seem to stray from the point. They are intended
as small glimpses of a broader picture, showing the unbroken relationship between
the great objectives of the Jesuits', their spirituality (discernment and interactive
spiritual quest guided by the Gospel) and our daily work as educators with the young
people of our time, who are in search of themselves and of God.
Working
together for the mission
Finally, I want to touch on just one more aspect
of the mission of the Society of Jesus: that of working together, in collaboration,
for the mission.
In truth, I do not feel I have to say very much because it
is obvious that we have to work together for the mission. In Vatican Radio, where
I have worked for twenty years (and which does not belong to the Society of Jesus,
but which is entrusted to the Jesuits) we Jesuits number around fifteen in a total
staff of 350. In your schools too, I believe, Jesuits are a small minority with respect
to the total number of educators. Therefore, we are all aware that our schools exist
only because we all collaborate together in a shared mission which the Jesuits cannot
achieve alone. As Father General Nicolas says: the mission of the Society is too big
to be carried forwards by the efforts of the Jesuits alone. He also says: "Today more
than ever, as we see the horizons of the mission expand, we must - more decisively,
more humbly and more joyfully - experience collaboration with others as a fundamental
aspect of our way of working". And not only the Father General, but also the most
authoritative body in the Society of Jesus, the most recent the General Congregation,
solemnly and explicitly expressed the same conviction: "The Ignatian tradition, when
expressed by a plurality of voices, - men and women, religious and laity, movements
and institutions, communities and individuals - becomes more welcoming, more vigorous,
more capable of enriching the Church" (CG 35, D.6, no. 23).
If we contemplate
the educational mission we have been discussing until now, its importance and its
beauty, then we find, I believe, that nothing therein is the exclusive property of
the Jesuits, nothing cannot be shared and lived by others who feel the call.
Jesuits
may be the animators and custodians of a certain spirit and a certain tradition, but
this spirit and this tradition can be subsumed by others who can act with no less
conviction and passion.
That means you! And I thank you for it, expressing
the hope that you will be faithful and enthusiastic interpreters of a great educational
tradition and vocation, for the good of the Church and of so many young people who
ask for guidance as they seek the most beautiful meaning of life, and thus "give to
God His greatest glory".